by Dan Arnold
“Let’s just say I prefer what I’m doing now. There’s much less bloodshed and chaos.”
Jake nodded.
“I understand, Ruben. Some of the Islamic countries in the region want to see Israel annihilated. Palestinian factions living among you are also dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Many of them are used as pawns in multifaceted disputes and political manipulations by both sides. There may never be a mutually agreed resolution. When any enemy won’t be satisfied with anything other than seeing you totally eradicated, there can be no meaningful negotiation. In such conflicts there are horrific consequences for both sides.”
Ruben sighed.
“Tell me about it. I was a part of the horror for almost twenty years. They fire missiles at Tel Aviv; we knock down whole city bocks trying to stop further attacks. They kill our people with homemade bombs; we drop bombs in air raids. Enough is enough. I’m done with all the political nonsense. These days my mission parameters are clear and they probably won’t include taking lives. That’s fine with me.”
“Politics is never easy or clean. Speaking of your mission, with the three of you down here, who’s protecting Morty?”
“Our agency is large and our detail has more than a dozen agents assigned to him providing protection day and night. Officially, the three of us are on vacation, but other agents are on duty. You didn’t see them, but they’ve been watching you from the time you arrived in country.”
“So, you monitor his communications? Is that how you knew I was coming?”
Ruben chuckled.
“No, we don’t invade his privacy. He told us he was sending for you.”
“How long ago did he tell you that?”
“I guess it was probably a couple of weeks ago, but when he tried to reach you, he learned you were in hospital in South Africa.”
“Did he tell you why I was in the hospital?”
“He said something about a helicopter crash.”
“Our chopper was shot down. My friend, the pilot, was killed.”
“Yes, so he said. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that we were attacked by assassins?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you provoked someone at some point in your research.”
“Or maybe someone who knew about the Ark, also found out Morty was planning to contact me.
Ruben stiffened.
“Are you suggesting we were involved?”
“No, Ruben. I’m not suggesting anything. Have you considered the possibility someone else might be monitoring his communications or listening in to his private conversations? Perhaps even in his home, his office or his car?”
Ruben and the other two men looked at each other.
“No, we stopped worrying about that long ago. He’s been silent on the subject of the Ark for all these years. Why would anyone suddenly start doing that?”
“Maybe it wasn’t sudden. How long have you been working on the plans for this particular mission?”
“He called us together a couple of months ago. He told us he was being directed to find a discrete and clandestine way to retrieve the Ark and secure its safety. He told us he couldn’t do it himself without arousing suspicion, so he was sending us with one other person. He was thinking of you. We checked out your qualifications and background at that time and began making preparations. ”
“Morty told me there was some sort of security breach, regarding the Ark. Gentlemen, I believe there’s also a leak in your agency. None of us are safe, not even Morty. Is there some way you can warn him?”
“We’d have to go through channels. That involves informing our superiors of the potential threat and explaining how we determined there is one.”
“Maybe you should do that. There’s no time to waste.”
“We can’t do it from down here. We have no mobile phone signal. Our radios won’t reach the transmittal towers, either. One of us will have to go back through the tunnels to the outside.”
“I’ll go,” David said.
Ruben shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s the best plan of action. He has a security detail. They’re just as well trained as we are. Let them handle any threat they encounter. We need to stay focused on our mission. The sooner we secure the Ark, the better. We have to pick up the pace. Let’s get to it.”
Jake reluctantly nodded his agreement.
“Be careful, Ruben, we’re nearly there. There are two more traps ahead. One is just outside the bend in the tunnel you can see from here. The other is right around the bend. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
“Alright, we’ll spread out the same as before. We may have company before this is over. I’ll look to the danger in front of us, David, you and Lorenzo have our six. Weapons free.”
The two men nodded and dug into their back packs. In a moment both men had side arms and carried compact automatic assault rifles. Extra magazines were secured to their vests. Now they were soldiers, ready for combat.
For his part, Jake felt the old pre-combat jitters that come with the rush of adrenaline. He wished he was armed as well.
As though reading his mind, Ruben handed him a holstered handgun.
“I imagine you know how to use that. If you believe in some sort of God, you’d better start praying. From here on we don’t know what to expect.”
Jake clipped the holster to his belt, pulled the pistol out, removed the magazine, checked the load, slid the breach open to look for a chambered round and then replaced the magazine. He holstered the weapon, cocked and locked, and said, “I’ll tell you, Ruben, I’ve been praying since Morty told me why he sent for me. I still believe were serving God’s purpose. We’re in His hands. That’s the safest place I can think of.”
Ruben smiled a crooked smile.
“That from a man forty feet underground in a booby trapped tunnel, seeking a relic that could kill us all, while unknown enemies are waiting for us where we can’t see them.”
Jake smiled back and chuckled.
“Well, when you say it like that…”
Ruben shook his head and began walking up the tunnel.
Thirteen
As before, Ruben held a tactical light in each hand as he led the team forward through the darkness. The only difference was he now carried weaponry where it could be quickly utilized.
Jake called for him to stop as soon as he reached the bend in the tunnel.
“The next trap is right in front of you. Do what you did before, Ruben. Let your eyes see everything, every little detail. Don’t move forward until you know what the trap or the trigger is.”
Lorenzo and David shut off their lamps so they could look back down the tunnel for any signs of approaching enemy lights. Jake held his wide angle beam on Ruben.
After carefully examining the ceiling and the walls, Ruben knelt and shone his lights low across the surface of the floor. After a moment he waived Jake forward.
“I think it’s another pit trap, only this time it’s here along the edge of the tunnel wall. Do you see it?”
“Yes, I agree, probe along there with your knife. I’ll do the same on the other side.”
Within a minute, Ruben confirmed the presence of the trap.
“This one is about two feet wide. The outside edge is flush against the tunnel wall. I’ll bet it’s the same depth as the other one.”
“Uh huh, and there are two pits here, one on each side. The only firm ground is down the very center of the tunnel. Check it out, but be careful.”
Jake squatted on his heels as David and Lorenzo walked up to see what Ruben discovered.
Ruben crawled forward down the center with one of his lights in his teeth, probing as he went. He crawled a little more than two meters before he stood up.
“There’s only about a half meter of firm ground from edge to edge down the center. The pits on each side are roughly two meters in length. We’ll have to be very careful carrying the package back across here. We’ll have to put one foot in fron
t of the other and maintain our balance.”
“It can be done.”
“Should we expose the holes like we did before?”
“No. this time we’ll leave things as they are. Can we mark the firm track in such a way that anyone else coming through this tunnel might not see it, but we’ll know what to look for?”
Ruben thought about it for a moment.
“What if we bury a cartridge with only the base exposed at ground level? Unless they shine a light directly on it, they might not notice a small brass dot. We know where to look for it. We’ll be able to spot it. We could put one at each end of the firm track.”
“I like it. It’s quick and easy.” Jake agreed.
David slid a couple of cartridges out of one of his spare magazines.
“I’m last in line. I’ll stick them in the ground when I come across.”
Jake nodded.
“OK. Remember, we have to walk a straight line and there’s no room for error. The firm track is really narrow.” He smiled and added, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it".
“What’s that about?” Ruben asked.
“I was quoting from the Bible, the book of Matthew, chapter seven. It’s just something Jesus said. Ok, here I go.
As Ruben shone both lights on the ground in front of him, Jake raised his arms out to the side to help improve his balance. Even though he was hunched down a little so his head didn’t smack the ceiling, he was surprised how easy it was to walk across. Three steps brought him to safety on the far side.
As though he could see the edges of the pits, Lorenzo stared at the ground as he walked across. His backpack and assault rifle made him top heavy. He wobbled a little, but arrived on the far side without incident.
Jake and Lorenzo shone their lights on the ground in front of David.
David knelt and pushed a cartridge into the center of the track, then stepped over it and walked across as if he didn’t have a care in the world. On the far side he turned and placed the remaining cartridge into the track.
“That’s perfect,” Jake said. “You have to look for it to see it.”
“How much farther do we have to go?” Ruben asked from his position a couple of meters up the tunnel.
Because of the bend in the tunnel, in the light of the two men’s torches, he appeared to be standing in a narrow arch of solid stone.”
“We’re almost there. This bend is really a corner. We’ll stop again where it straightens out. There’s another trap somewhere there, so don’t get in a hurry. You know the drill.”
The bend was in fact a ninety degree change of direction, but so gradual it didn’t seem like a corner. Thirty paces brought Ruben to where the tunnel became straight again.
As before, he stopped to examine the ceiling, walls and floor. This time he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to step forward when he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He swung his head around to look at the wall, but there was nothing there, or was there? Raising the flashlights caused another flicker of something like movement. It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing was a very feint and nearly indistinguishable shadow. When he moved the light, the shadow shifted on the wall.
Knowing this was something new. He took a slow step backward. He lifted his lights to discover a thin wire stretched across the tunnel in front of him at about the level of his throat. The wire was completely blackened to reflect no light. It was a wonder he hadn’t hit it with his arms as he maneuvered the lights around. His throat must’ve been nearly touching it. Another half step forward would’ve brought him into contact with the wire.
“Jake, I’ve found something. Come have a look,” he called.
Jake’s light spread across the wall of the tunnel as he appeared from farther back around the bend.
“What have you got?”
“Stop there. About two feet in front of me there’s a black wire stretched across the tunnel. Even though I was looking for something, I almost walked into it. Do you see it?”
It was Jake’s turn to whistle between his teeth.
“Yeah, I see it and I don’t like it.”
“What is it, some type of trigger?”
“Yep, probably for a deadfall, that’s what brought down the ceiling in the other section of tunnel.”
“How does it work?”
Jake shone his light where the wire met the wall on his left. Closer examination revealed the wire seemed to go straight into the wall. Examining the opposite wall, he found the same thing.
“I don’t know how you spotted this, Ruben, but I’m sure glad you did.”
“I didn’t see the wire. It was the shadow of the wire on the wall. It moved when I lifted my flashlights. If I didn’t have two lights, I wouldn’t have noticed anything.
Jake studied the wall for a moment as he flicked open his knife. He rubbed his fingers along the surface around the edge of the wire. After a moment, he raised the knife to scratch at it. A moment’s work flaked away the painted surface of plaster, exposing the wire passing through a small pulley anchored inside an open seam where stones joined together. The seam was covered with the same kind of painted plaster shell. The wire disappeared straight up through the seam to the edge of the ceiling.
Looking at the ceiling, Jake shook his head.
“If you had hit the wire, it would’ve pulled out some steel pins. Those pins are all that’s holding up a slab of stone. That slab is holding up the whole ceiling here.”
Ruben shuddered involuntarily.
Jake said, “You have to appreciate Morty’s work. I’ve never seen a better booby trap. What’s especially clever about is its location.”
Lorenzo and David were approaching around the bend.
“Why is that?” Ruben asked.
“Why is what?” Lorenzo asked.
“Stop right there.” Jake said. He shone his light on the spot where he’d exposed the wire passing through the pulley.
“Ruben spotted this trigger wire. If anyone walked into it, it would’ve caused another ceiling collapse. I was just saying that Morty was very clever about where and how he placed this booby trap.”
“Why is that?” David asked.
“That was my question.” Ruben huffed.
Jake squatted, poking at the floor of the tunnel with his knife. He took a deep breath before he answered the question.
“It’s clever because triggering the trap would accomplish two very important things at one time.”
“What things?” Lorenzo asked.
Jake pointed straight up at the ceiling with the blade.
“No matter which direction the searchers approached from, bringing down the ceiling would probably kill whoever triggered the trap, and it would seal this tunnel right here at the bend.”
“How is that any different from what happened behind us?”
Jake nodded as though making a final decision. He pointed over his shoulder with the knife blade.
“It’s important because the Ark of the Covenant is right behind this wall.”
Fourteen
Jake’s announcement that they’d reached their destination brought a silent response. The three men’s eyes all shot to the wall as though they’d been practicing the move.
“Well, let’s get to it.” Lorenzo said.
“Not just yet.” Jake replied.
“What are we waiting for?”
“The ceiling above us is unstable. The only thing holding it up is some old steel pins. Accidently tripping the wire or too much commotion will probably bring the whole thing down on us. It’s going to take finesse, not speed.”
“Can’t we just cut the wire?”
“No, there’s a great deal of tension on it. I suspect the wire is weighted up inside the chamber where the pins are. If the wire is cut the weights will drop, pulling out the pins. Morty is a very c
lever man.”
“OK. We get it. Avoid the wire altogether. Fine, let’s get through the wall.”
Before we try to breach it, I need to remove some of the plaster that’s hiding the surface of the wall. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Ruben nodded.
“He’s right. Now is not the time to hurry. It’s more important to do this the right way than it is to do it quickly.”
“There’s something else you should know,” David said.
Everyone looked at the younger man.
“I must be the first person to approach the Ark.”
“What? Why?” Lorenzo snorted.
Ruben frowned and said, “Actually, I think Jake should be the first person to go in to examine the artifact. He’s the best trained and most experienced member of this team. We wouldn’t have made it here without him. One or more of us would be dead if he wasn’t here.”
“You don’t understand how dangerous it is. Anyone who touches the Ark will be killed. Only the High Priest is allowed inside the Holy of Holies. Only he is allowed to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat. Like Professor Horowitz, I’m in the bloodline of the house of Levi. For the past two years I’ve been in training to become the High Priest.”
Ruben and Lorenzo stared at David as if he’d just announced he was a winged unicorn.
“What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?” Ruben demanded.
“I don’t care what kind of blue jeans you wear, kid. That’s some weird stuff you’re saying.” Lorenzo added.
Lorenzo’s comment brought a chuckle from Jake, but his response to David was different.
“David, the chamber on the other side of this wall isn’t the Holy of Holies. It’s just a hole in the ground. Anyone can crawl in there.”
David shook his head.
“I knew you wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t matter. Just know that I must go in first and I alone.”
“Oh yeah, do you plan to bring it out alone, too?”
“…Of course not, Lorenzo, it’s just a precaution. Once I insert the poles through the loops you can help lift it.”
“Well, thank you very little. Who do you think you are?”